What a nice ride…..

I took a ride the other evening with a buddy that has been off the bike for a while. Knowing this, we set out with the goal of a nice relaxed ride. And we accomplished that. We took it easy, we saw wild turkeys, we chatted the whole way out and back and we generally had a nice relaxed ride followed of course by a couple of beers back at the truck.

The next day we were talking and I commented about how much fun it was to just cruise along, relax and enjoy the ride to which he responded “..of course it was, you know Rich you don’t have to kill yourself on every ride…”
Obviously this comment left me dumbfounded because I had never really thought of that. I mean, after all, riding is exercise right? And the goal of exercise is a certain level of fitness right?

I spent a couple of beers I mean hours thinking this over and came up with the following formula:
Level of Fitness(X) = Intensity of Exercise(IE) x Amt of Time Available(ATA)

Therefore X=(IE)x(ATA)

Now, if you assume that a basic level of fitness requires at the very least 1 hour, 3x per week, then you factor in the fact that each week has only 168 hrs.
Factor in the basic assumptions that you need to sleep 6 hours a night and most of us work 9 hours a day.
In addition our spouses and families demand to see us somewhat regularly. If you own a home then the project and chores need to be done and if you hope in any way to have a social life or friends then there’s the basic life requirements on your time….

After you incorporate the following other variables into the equation (W) work, (L) Life, (P) projects uncompleted, (K) kids and (S) Spouse, the equation ends up looking like this:

X= (IE) x (3/168)X((ATA)-(W+L+P+K+S)
X= -4

Now granted, I wasn’t a math major, but I come up with somewhere around -4 hours at the end of every week and I haven’t even begun to figure in eating….

Now, although my buddy was right and riding is fun…..I don’t think there’s time for fun in my previous equation…